Sound of Silence
by aint-no-muggle
Summary: Songfic on my favorite song by Simon and Garfunkel, Sound of Silence. Google it, it's really good... anyway, just a short first songfic on Ginny's year at Hogwarts while Harry is off looking for Horcruxes. Must read Deathly Hallows to get most of this.


**A/N: I'll say it again... you need to read the Deathly Hallows to understand this. I should be working on 'Alarm Clock,' but writing things longer than one chapter makes me impatient... ****and this has been in my head for a while, so I decided to get it out. Basically, it's about Ginny's year at Hogwarts while Harry was out searching for the Horcruxes.**

* * *

_Hello darkness, my old friend,  
I've come to talk with you again…_

Harry was gone. So were Ron and Hermione. Off doing Merlin only knows what to stop Voldemort. All of her muggle-born friends were either in hiding or in prison, and though she was popular and had a lot of friends, they weren't nearly as close as her muggle-born ones. And so she found solace in silence and being alone.

_Because a vision softly creeping,  
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,_

_And the vision that was planted in my brain  
Still remains  
Within the sound of silence…  
_

Every night she had the same dream: Harry, Ron and Hermione were found, her parents were killed for pretending Ron wasn't gone, and Voldemort won. Totally clichéd, right? She woke up screaming every night, and it stayed with her all day.

_In restless dreams I walked alone  
Narrow streets of cobblestone…_

She created a world for herself, where she walked around in silence, not speaking unless it was quite necessary. Onlookers would say she was depressed; she would say that she was surviving, and coping. If she said anything, that is.

_'Neath the halo of a street lamp,  
I turned my collar to the cold and damp  
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light  
That split the night  
And touched the sound of silence._

Nothing changed, day after day. The _Prophet_ continued to demand any news about Harry and Hermione be turned in to the Ministry immediately, the new Muggle Studies and Defense Against the Dark Arts professors continued to be disgustingly cruel and taught both that muggles were beasts and that Dark Magic needed to be used for any kind of punishment. Neville continued to stand up and fight Professor Carrow in every public way possible and have the crap beat out of him for it, and she continued to walk through the halls of what used to be her favorite school in a numb shell of herself. She barely heard anything now, and rarely said a word except for at the newly re-formed DA meetings. They weren't regular, though, and after the first couple people just stopped coming.

Her numb shell gave her a blissfully deaf ear to everything, including questions asked by teachers; so after she finished creating it, the first thing that broke threw it was Professor Carrow's Cruciatus Curse. She was staring into space when, quite suddenly, an unbelievable pain began coursing through her body. She somehow doubted that it was going to be the last time.

_And in the naked light I saw  
Ten thousand people, maybe more._

The pain had been so excruciating that she was sure that she had died, and began hallucinating. Well, she assumed the strange vision was a hallucination. It was brief: countless nameless, faceless people. And she didn't know how she knew, but she did; they were the people killed by Voldemort.

When she was relieved of the pain, she was suddenly very aware of all the people around her. She still had the numb shell, so she still heard nothing and said nothing, but she was much more aware of the suffering around her. She realized that half the time that she was encased in her shell, there was nothing to listen or speak to. She began to curiously attempt to analyze how people coped. She had always been good at reading people; time to put her skills to the test.

_People talking without speaking,  
People hearing without listening,  
People writing songs that voices never share  
And no one dared  
Disturb the sound of silence.  
_

Some talked to themselves, mouthing words that only they could hear. Some had little voices that only they could hear, and they listened to the non-existent words intently. One or two seemed to write songs that were never brought off of the paper. Quite a few seemed to take comfort in a blade. But no-one dared to talk about their troubles, fears or concerns. The Great Hall was silent, no-one talked. Not even the Slytherins; the war had been hard on even the pureblooded families, it seemed. Not even the DA was meeting anymore. Had everyone given up so easily?

_"Fools" said I, "You do not know  
Silence like a cancer grows.  
Hear my words that I might teach you,  
Take my arms that I might reach you."  
But my words like silent raindrops fell,  
And echoed  
In the wells of silence._

She decided to try sending out a message on one of the old DA coins, begging those who got the message to meet behind the statue of the One-Eyed Witch. They all knew the password, so she didn't bother adding it. There was no way of knowing who else had gotten a hold on the coins, anyway.

Neville, Luna, and a couple of other people she didn't know came. They half-halfheartedly planned some pranks, and found a new way to cope: each other. They still didn't talk about their problems, but somehow, their shared company in private, plotting against the new teachers helped.

_And the people bowed and prayed  
To the neon god they made._

They didn't know why this was happening to them, why it was happening at all, or how anyone worshiped Voldemort as the Death Eaters did, but there wasn't much that could be done other than continue meeting in secret. So, that's what they did. The did little things: graffiti on various walls, mostly, but they did try to get Gryffindor's sword for Harry; they knew that Harry needed it, no matter if they didn't know why. They were caught, though, and that put a damper on things. It was funny to think about, really; the punishment was lame - working in the Forest with Hagrid? She thought that they were going to be whipped - and it didn't make anyone but Neville more depressed.

Neville had spirit. He was stronger than all of them put together. He was optimistic and it took a lot to bring him down, unlike the rest of them, and the failure to get the sword brought him down a bit, but he never stopped rebelling.

_And the sign flashed out its warning,  
In the words that it was forming.  
And the sign said,"the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls  
And tenement halls.  
_

Yes, the Death Eaters worshiped Voldemort. She was depressed, along with most of the wizarding community. She had no future unless Harry beat Voldemort, but she could live with that as long as Harry survived. She didn't even know if Harry and the others, or she, or any of her other friends would survive this ordeal.

Except for the once again regular DA meetings, she still didn't speak at all. She was tortured when this annoyed her teachers, yes, but it changed nothing. She was just waiting, and rebelling silently in all the little ways she could.

Luna was taken while on the train home for Christmas Break, and they finally stopped with the graffiti. It was getting too dangerous. They still met often, but they were more quiet and reserved with each meeting.

_And whisper'd in the sounds of silence."_

She was eventually whisked home when it was found out that Ron was indeed with The Boy Who Lived, and she didn't talk after that until she saw Harry for the first time since Bill and Fleur's wedding. He may have not been safe, but he was alive.

_fin_

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**Just a short, slightly depressing songfic on one of my favorite songs by Simon and Garfunkel: 'Sound of Silence.' Not impressive, not even all that good (way to dramatic, made me want to puke), but in order to think I had to get it out of my head. That's the second time this has happened. I now have two bad fanfics and two... not-so-bad fanfics. **

**Review and I'll give you a cookie! Read my other stories and I'll give you a Redvine! Read my other stories and review on them and you can have the whole package!**

**Peace  
**


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